Hi all,
does anyone know if there are studies saying anything about how dominance (as a feature of personality) is distributed among people? I would like to know, for example, if there are more people with high dominance than people with low dominance. (another feature I am interested in is resilience).
Many thanks in advance!
Christian
Offhand, I'd say the trait is more-or-less normally distributed. For data, have a look at the various personality tests that include dominance scales. Some of the more extensive factor-analytic scales will include dominance as a facet of Extraversion. There's a dominance scale on the California Psychological Inventory and one on the Personality Assessment Inventory. Gough developed a dominance scale for the MMPI. And there are others!
Great, I am sure I will find some valuable information looking for these scales.
Thanks!
Dominance and submission also have central roles in interpersonal theories, starting with the work of Timothy Leary and culminating for example in the excellent work of Lorna Benjamin. Looking at some of the circumplex models in addition to the factor models might bring out additional components ... there are certainly ways that dominance is not personal, but only interpersonal.
Further to Chris Steinman's excellent response, another aspect is motivation to dominate, which was included in Murray's 1938 model of motivation/personality, and more recently (1970s on) included in personality tests by Doug Jackson of Western University, Canada, such as the Personality Research Form. Such tests also assume a normal distribution in the population.
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